Corner construction for walls

ABSTRACT

A CORNER CONSTRUCTION FOR THE WALLS OF A ROOM OR BUILDMEMBERS FORMED FROM FLAT STOCK OF THE SAME SIZE. A FIRST MEMBERS FORMED FROM THE FLAT STOCK OF THE SAME SIZE. A FIRST PAIR OF UPWARDLY FACING CHANNELS FORM A CORNER AT FLOOR LEV000EL AND A SECOND PAIR OD OUTWARDLY FACING CHANELS FORM ANOTHER CONNER AT CEILING LEVEL. THESE CHANNELS ARE ADAPTED TO RECEIVE CHANNEL-SHAPED STUDS TO PROVIDE SUPPORT OF WALL MATERIAL. AT THE CORNERS FORMED BY THE CHANNELS, AN OTHER CORNER BRACE IS FORMED BY A FIRST UPRIGHT METAL RIGHT ANGLE MEMBER HAVING INWARDLY TURNED EDGE FLANGE AND SECURED AT ITS BOTTOM AND TOP ENDS TO THE OUTSIDE FLANGES OF THE LOWER AND UPPER CHANNELS. A   SECOND UPRIGHT METAL RIGHT ANGLE MEMBER HAVING OUTWARDLY TURNED EDGE FLANGES IS SECURED AT ITS LOWER AND UPPER ENDS RESPECTIVELY TO THE INSIDE FLANGES OF THE LOWER AND UPPER CHANNELS. THE RIGHT ANGLE MEMBERS SERVE TO SUPPORT WALL MATERIAL SUCH AS WALLBOARD AT THE CORNERS OF A ROOM, AND THE RIGHT ANGLE MEMBERS MAY BE MADE FORM THE SAME FLAT STOCK AS THE CHANNELS TO SIMPLIFY FABRICATION.

NOV. 30, 1971 c FORCE 3,623,287

CORNER CONSTRUCTION FOR WALLS Filed Oct. 13, 1969 INVENTOR. MYRON C. FORCE United States Patent 3,623,287 CORNER CONSTRUCTION FOR WALLS Myron C. Force, North Miami, Fla., assignor to Florida Rolling Mills, Inc., Miami, Fla. Filed Oct. 13, 1969, Ser. No. 865,724 Int. Cl. E04b 1/343, 1/348 US. Cl. 52282 3 Claims ABSTRACT OF THE DISCLOSURE A corner construction for the walls of a room or building wherein all horizontal and upright members are metal members formed from flat stock of the same size. A first pair of upwardly facing channels form a corner at floor level and a second pair of outwardly facing channels form another corner at ceiling level. These channels are adapted to receive channel-shaped studs to provide support for wall material. At the corners formed by the channels, an outer corner brace is formed by a first upright metal right angle member having inwardly turned edge flanges and secured at its bottom and top ends to the outside flanges of the lower and upper channels. A second upright metal right angle member having outwardly turned edge flanges is secured at its lower and upper ends respectively to the inside flanges of the lower and upper channels. The right angle members serve to support wall material such as wallboard at the corners of a room, and the right angle members may be made from the same flat stock as the channels to simplify fabrication.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION At the present time, metal channels are sometimes used along with upright channel shaped studs to provide support for the wall material used in constructing a room of a building. lower and upper channels are abutted to form corners, but the provision of corner braces presents problems. To provide corners usually requires the use of three upright channel shaped studs. One stud is placed transversely of one upper and lower channel at the corner, a second stud is placed at night angles to the first stud to provide an outside corner brace, and a third stud is placed at right angles to the first stud and parallel to the second stud to provide an inside corner brace. It would be desirable to reduce the amount of material required for corner bracing and at the same time avoid any need for complicated structural shapes which would require special fabrication techniques.

OBJECTS OF THE INVENTION It is an object of the present invention to provide an improved corner construction for the frame of the walls of a building utilizing metal members which may all be made from a single size of stock material.

Another object of the invention is to incorporate right angle members into the corners of a building frame, the right angle members providing inner and outer corner braces and being fabricated merely by bending metal channels at the middle thereof.

A further object of the invention is to provide metal corner braces for use with metal channels at the corner of the room of a building, the outside corner brace consisting of an inwardly bent metal channel and the inside corner brace consisting of an outwardly bent metal channel such that the two braces form right angle members having stiffening flanges for increased rigidity.

Other objects of this invention will appear from the following description and appended claims, reference being had to the accompanying drawings forming a part of this specification wherein like reference characters designate corresponding parts in the several views.

On the drawings:

FIG. 1 is a fragmentary perspective view of a corner construction in accordance with one embodiment of the invention;

FIG. 2 is a fragmentary perspective View of the corner construction of FIG. I viewed from the inside with the inside corner brace being detached;

FIG. 3 is a sectional view taken along line 3-3 of FIG. 1 looking in the direction of the arrows; and

FIG. 4 is a perspective view of a partial frame utilizing the corner construction of the invention.

Before explaining the present invention in detail, it is to be understood that the invention is not limited in its application to the details of construction and arrangement of parts illustrated in the accompanying drawings, since the invention is capable of other embodimets and of being practiced or carried out in various ways. Also, it is to be understood that the prhaseology or terminology employed herein is for the purpose of description and not of limitation.

As shown on the drawings:

The corner construction 10 shown in FIGS. 1, 2 and 3 is located at one corner of a frame 12 shown in FIG. 4, the frame serving to support studs and corner braces for the walls of a room in a building. In FIG. 4, there are upwardly facing channels 14, 15, 16 and 17 mounted on the floor 18 of the building. There are also downwardly facing metal channel members 19, 20, 21 and 22 at the level of the ceiling 23. These channels serve to support upright channel-shaped studs which provide the support for wall material such as wallboard, but the studs are omitted in FIG. 4 for the purpose of simplifying the drawings. The corner construction 10 is at one corner of the room, and the other three corner constructions are identified as 24, 25 and 26.

The details of the corner construction 10 are shown in FIGS. 1 through 3. The lower metal channel members 14 and 17 have mitered end which abut against each other at 30 to form a right angle corner. Channel member 14 has upwardly extending flanges 32 and 34, and channel 17 has upwardly extending flanges 36 and 38. The upper metal channels 19' and 22 have mitered ends which abut each other at 40 to form a right angle corner. The channel 19 has downwardly extending flanges 42 and 44, only flange 42 being visible and the other channel 22 has downwardly extending flanges 46 and 48, only flange 46 being visible.

An outer corner brace 50 is provided in the form of an upright metal right angle member having inwardly turned flanges 52 and 54. The lower end of angle member 50 is secured to the outer flanges 34 and 38 of channels 14 and 17 by means of screws 56 and 58, and the upper end of angle member 50 is secured to the outer flanges 42 and 46 of the upper channel members 19 and 22 by means of screws 60 and 62.

An inside corner brace 64 is provided in the form of an upright metal right angle member having outwardly turned edge flanges 66 and 68. The lower end of angle member 64 is secured to the inside flanges 32 and 36 of lower channels 14 and 17 by means of screws 70 and 72, and the upper end of angle member 64 is secured to the inside flanges 44 and 481 of the upper channels 19 and 22 by similar screws which are not visible.

The corner braces 50 and 64 will readily support the edges of wall material such as wallboard, with corner brace 64 supporting the inside wall and corner brace 50 supporting the outside wall. The wallboard may be attached to the corner braces as with screws. The flanges 52 and 54 of corner brace 50 and also flanges 66 and 68 of corner brace 64 act to stilfen the respective corner brace so that it will have relatively great rigidity for support purposes. All of the flanges of both the corner braces and the channel members are of the same size, and the corner braces and the channel members may be formed from a single size of stock material. The most advantageous method of fabrication is to form standard channel members such as 14, 17, 42 and 46, and then to fabricate corner braces 50 and 64 it is only necessary to bend channel members at the middle into a right angle, with the outside corner brace 50 being bent inwardly and the inside corner brace 64 being bent outwardly. Thus, no special fabrication techniques are required in order to make the corner braces.

Thus, it is apparent from the foregoing description that the invention provides an improved corner construction requiring only two structural members at each corner of a room rather than three as is conventional with metal stud construction at the present time. The corner braces can be formed from metal channels by a simple bending operation, and the flanges of the resulting right angle members act to stiffen the members so that they can easily support wallboard without flexing or bending unduly. All of the metal members of the corner construction are of the same size, and thus can be formed from flat stock having a single size.

Having thus described my invention, I claim:

1. In a frame for walls of a room of a building, a corner construction comprising a first pair of metal channels facing up and forming a corner at floor level, said first channels having ends abutting each other and portions extending from said ends at right angles to each other, a second pair of metal channels facing down and forming a corner at ceiling level, said second channels having ends abutting each other and portions extending from said ends at right angles to each other, said channels being adapted to support upright channel shaped studs for a wall, an outside corner brace in the form of a first upright metal right angle member having edge flanges turned inward at a right angle with only a single bend to provide stiffening, said first right angle member being secured at the bottom thereof to the outside corner formed by said first channels and secured at the top thereof to the outside corner formed by said second channels and an inside corner brace in the form of a second upright metal right angle member having edge flanges turned outwardly at a right angle with only a single bend to provide stiffening, said second right angle member being secured at the bottom thereof to the inside corner formed by said first channels and secured at the top thereof to the inside corner formed by said second channels said first and second right angle members comprising separate metal pieces of the same size each consisting of a channel of the same size as said first and second channel bent along a center line with said pieces having no interconnection nor bracing extending between the same, and said first and second right angle members receiving wall board which completely hides said pieces as well as said channels and said studs.

2. The corner construction as claimed in claim 1 in which said ends of said first channels are mitered and the ends of said second channels are mitered. l

3. The corner construction as claimed in claim 1 in which said right angle members are secured to said channels with screws passing through the flanges of said channels.

References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 2,186,310 1/1940 Non Hoefen 52-280 3,127,960 4/1964 Smith et al. 52-282 3,508,364 4/1970 Thompson 52--242 2,612,243 9/1952 Campbell 1.. 52238 3,189,135 6/1965 Slowinski 52282 3,332,188 7/ 1967 Schaefer 52-349 FOREIGN PATENTS 154,091 11/1920 Great Britain 251-312 1,023,263 3/1966 lGreat Britain 52-476 396,368 1/ 1966 Switzerland 52-282 HENRY C. SUTHERLAND, Primary Examiner I. L. RIDGI' LL, JR., Assistant Examiner US. Cl. XJR. 287189.36 H 

